HBP Team Wins Annual JCCI-EDI Cook-Off by Patricia Patriarca
It has been ages since I had eaten one of the Philippines’ most controversial delicacies, balut. Also known as “the duck chick that never made it past the shell,” balut is controversial because not everyone would happily dig in at first glance. In the Philippines, balut is regarded as a delicacy, even as an aphrodisiac — this is why it could usually be found at dusk, along the road or from roaming balut vendors.
In this year’s JCCI Extreme Cook-Off held last June 22, 2019, balut was chosen as the featured ingredient. Several teams tried to come up with new and exciting ways to create something exotic out of the controversial aphrodisiac. Then, to add a twist to the menu, a secret ingredient, saba banana, was included. Finally, each team was allowed to cook a dish of their choice.
Competing teams cooked the featured ingredient in a variety of ways — there was the balut patty (which was similar to a burger), balut pâté, and balut in pasta. Meanwhile, two groups unknowingly cooked balut curry; however, the deciding factor was in the complete serving of the featured dish, the secret ingredient, and the dish of choice.
In the end, our team, Harvard Business Publishing, took home the win with our balut curry, saba and onion fritters, and our dish of choice — sooji halwa. Sooji Halwa is an Indian dessert made with semolina flour, sugar, ghee, milk, topped with pistachio and cashew nuts. All of the dishes we cooked that morning were of Indian origin, thanks to HBP’s business development manager, Rachna Gaba. The judge noted that the spice of the curry dish wasn’t that intense and added that he liked the fusion between the Filipino delicacy and the Indian curry. Until next year’s cook-off!
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About the author:
Trish is a single mom that can bake mouth-watering cookies and cheesecakes. She’s a photographer that previously worked on board cruise ships for several years. She also scuba dives once in a blue moon.
